Epidural - should I have one?

[suburbanslob]

Honest answers ladies - not bothered about being 'Earth Mother' type. What are the drawbacks? Anyone had a natural/ish birth AND and epidural that can give both sides of the coin?

They massively increase the risk of needing forceps or ventouse. And emergency CSs actually.

You can do it without.

I had a 9lb boy who was back-to-back on just gas and air. I wrote all over my birth plan NO EPIDURAL!!!

Out of the three girls who had them in my NCT class one had to have a CS and the other two forceps. The four who didnt all had natural instrumental free deliveries.

Hi Suburbanslob

I had epidural with DS1, natural with DS2 - no doubt about it, much nicer with DS2 as could stand up straight away, felt better straight afterwards, all round much nicer feeling

BUT

DS2 was a 4 hour labour, DS1 16 hours - I could not have got through labour with DS1 without an epidural and it makes me really, really angry when I do hear "Earth Mother" types going on about how you need to get through it, you'll forget about it later, you'll regret it if you have an epidural. Whilst DS2's birth was nicer and yes part of that was because I didn't have an epidural, I still do not regret for 1 second having had an epidural with DS1 as I really don't know what I'd have done without one.

My advice? Be totally open about what you are going to do and don't let anyone tell you you are a wimp or will regret it if you do end up having an epidural!

Good luck

Thanks for the advice ladies - open mind it is! Wish me luck!

why don't you wait and see if you feel you need one?

i think trying to plan is fruitless, you have no idea how long or short, easy or hard your particular labour will be.

I went into it with an open mind, thinking i would make decisons when i felt i needed to, but hoping i could do it as 'naturally' as possible

after 19 hours i opted for an epidural, my labour had started intensively and quickly and i coped (just), after about 12 hours things slowed and i was very tired and felt couldn't take it with just entanox any longer

i had an epidural after 19 hours and DS was born about 3 or 4 hours later.

I did indeed have to have an episiotomy, and just managed to muster enough energy to push him out when they started waving the vontouse around.

the episiotomy healed well, yes i was sore for a few days, but i think anyone who has just given birth would be

my advice, don't rule it our or in, wait and see if you feel your particular circumstances warrent it at the time, that way you don't set yourself up for 'oh but i wanted to do it naturally' disappointment.
Good luck

Had epidurals for all three of mine. If you are good at pain - don't - if you are a pathetic wreck when you trip over or stub your toe - do!

BooBearBoo, it is possible that the women you know who had epidurals and needed assistance, were having far more difficlut labours. your logic that it was the epidural that necessitated assistance, and going it alone meaning easier births doesnt' necessarily follow, it might be the other way around

see how you go ... my "plan" was to have when I felt I couldn't cope. I asked for one after however many hours it was, they examined me, said I was actually 8cm and I was so delighted I was nearly there I got to the end without. but if they'd said 4cm, I'd have had one like a shot.

good luck!

good luck!

Two weeks before ds was born i was with my friend when she had her baby. She was induced and pretty much told she would need an epi. Esp as they had kept her up waiting all night and she was exhausted.

I saw first hand how her epi seemed to lead to more intervention. Obviously you can never say that these things wouldn't have happened without an epi...but it does follow the classic pattern of post epi escalation...
Her bp dropped dramatically so she needed a drip.

She had a really good block so couldn't feel a thing. Or wee, so she needed a catheter.

She did manage to sleep through most of the labour so that was an advantage (though she felt she hadn't experienced labour)

When it came time to deliver she struggled to push as she couldn't feel. Her contractions virtually stopped. .Her ds struggled to get down the birth canal and she couldn't move on to all fours to help jiggle him in to position. He was delivered by forcerps (which required an episiotomy which later became infected as is more likely than with a tear), narrowly avoiding a cs.

Of course her labour was completely pain free and for some women that is understandably important.

But for me having seen what she went through, i was determined to avoid an epi if at all possible and was lucky enough to do so. I had an intervention free delivery on g and ...
How ever watching here i also realised that if i did have to have an epi, even if it escalated (as is statistically likely) that the medics would do everything possible to deliver a healthy baby.

Really glad to hear all this about epidurals. I'm not sure at the min either, though I am a long way off yet!!
Hoping to do it all naturally only because I don't like the thought of the needle or lack of feeling, but I am perfectly open to all kinds of drugs if things start getting REALLY awful after many hours.
Really I'm going to play it all by ear!

I had an epidural for my son, second baby, it was fab and i would again. I could feel to push, but felt no pain, fab birth with no side affects afterwards :) Start to finish was 6 hours.

I had an epidural: no forceps, no ventouse, also no pain. I think see how you go and definitely keep an open mind. There seems to be a certain amount of competitiveness around this issue, and obviously women who don't have epidurals are not better mothers than ones who do!

It's seems silly to me that women can be viewed as 'letting themselves down' if they have an epidural: ludicrous in fact! I'm going in, seeing how I go, and if I scream blue murder then an epidural it is! Thank you all so much for your advice.

Agree with others - you should have a list of pain relief options in mind starting with those with no side effects and ending with those with loads of side effects, and during labour move down your list if you feel you need to and what you are currently doing isn't working. But if your current pain relief is helping you cope adequately then you don't need to move down the list. You might get to the bottom of your list, or you might only get halfway down, depending on how your labour goes. So a possible list might be:

I will try:

having a bath
breathing
active positions (on all fours etc)
TENS
Birthing pool
Gas and air
Pethidine
Epidural

(obviously the first 5 all have no real negative side effects, and the order of the last 2 isn't necessarily precisely scientifically right).

Good luck!

I don't think it is something you can decide before if that makes sense. I didn't need one and don't think I would have got one with either of mine as I progressed quickly.

I am pregnant again and as every labour is unpredicatable I will go in with the same frame of mind as with the other two and see what happens.

Whatever happens you are not a failure or a weakling or anything of that sort if you require one.

I arrived pushing with my last child and ended up having an EMCS so as I said nothing can be planned and predicted when it coems to birth IME.

At antenatal classes we talked about epidurals and got a list of all the possible complications.

I would prefer not to have one, as I hate needles, and the most common complication is a drop in blood pressure - I have low blood pressure anyway so do not think this would help me at all.

But, I won't rule anything out. If the Drs say the best thing at the time is an epidural then that is what I will do.

I didn't have an epidural with DS, I had gas and air, but that was more because I didn't fancy morphine/pethedine because I hate feeling drugged and I was scared of the epidural because I hate needles! So my "natural" delivery was down to stubbornness and cowardice rather than any strong principles about biting on a stick and working through it!

My advice though is to do what's right for you and decide on the day. Plans are all well and good but don't be so rigid in your plans that you close of other alternatives, keep an open mind and take it as it comes.

The advantages of not having an epidural were that I could move around, I was able to take a shower and sort myself out straight after, and I was able to change positions. The disadvantages were that I felt everything, it was a long labour and he was back-to-back so I was exhausted (literally passing out between contractions by the end of it) because I wasn't relaxed or numb enough to sleep for any of it, and it was hard for DH too to see me hurting.

It sometimes helps to think of pain relief as a ladder and each type is a rung. So on the bottom rungs you have mild forms such as warm water, a TENS machine, massage, and gas and air. Next step up and you have morphine/pethedine, and next up from that you have an epidural. That's how my MW explained it to me, I know it seems a bit daft but it helped me to figure it all out. She said on the day to start on the lowest rung and if that wasn't working to go up a step, and up a step, and up a step, and so on until I found a method that worked.

Epidurals these days are great, they can reduce them as you near the pushing bit enough for you to feel the urge (and even if you can't then the midwife can tell you when) and they have things like walking epidurals where you have enough pain relief to feel comfortable but you keep a measure of sensation which means you can move around and change position rather than being entirely numbed. At the end of the day there are no medals for bravery in the delivery room, do what's best for you.

It might also help to see your MW as she'll be able to tell you about all the different methods.

I was lucky that when I was in being induced I got the chance to talk to the anethsatist who was very honest with the pros and cons of one. That made me decide that under no circumstances did I want one!

Ds was back to back and I ended up on the drip being induced. I was told by the midwife afterwards if I had had an epidural i would have almost certainly needed intervention and as such I am pleased I didnt.

I think you need to way up the pros and cons and then decide what is best for you.

I had an epidural at about 5 cm dilated (after a few terrible hours in a side room of the Antenatal Day Unit, because they didnt have a room ready for me in the consultant-led Unit, and I wasn't allowed to go to the midwife-led Unit because my BP was too high).

It made the rest of my labour blissful to be honest - I dilated with no pain, while watching TV and reading the paper. I couldn't feel an urge to push but the midwife told me when it was time, and I pushed DS out in about half an hour - lights down low, just me, DP, and MW. I felt fantastic while I was pushing. It worked so well for me.

But EVERY labour is different - I would never 'recommend' one and I have an open mind as to whether I will this time round.

I went into my labour and birth with the mantra "I will do it with as little as I can possibly get by with". Unfortunately, my contractions were excrutiating and, after 27 hours labouring, were 60 seconds apart - however, I was only 1cm dilated!! By this stage, I'd had G&A, which just made me throw up, TENS, which worked to a point, and 2 pethadine injections (they completely knocked me unconscious, but the contractions were so violent that they hauled me out of my drug-induced coma each time they came).

At this point, I told them I HAD to have an epidural - the contractions weren't working (in terms of dilating me), were too frequent, and I was too exhausted to carry on. MW's refused!! DH then threatened to sue them, and funnily enough they changed their minds! (I later found out that if it hadn't been middle of the night, and a consultant hadn't been occupied with another patient, I would absolutely have been carted off for CS at this stage).

I can honestly say that the epidural saved my life. I was able to cat nap for about 3 hours, and they were able to administer Pitocin to help me dilate. Thank God I had the epidural, as the labour went on another 17 hours, and this was all because DS was basically well and truly stuck (took 2 hours pushing, 1 hour of full-strength yanking with ventouse to get him out).

Go with your gut - your body will let you know how well it is coping. Do everything you can do before hand to educate yourself on how to manage your labour in the best way possible, but don't be down on yourself if it doesn't go to plan - births are all different, and some female bodies as well as their babies are just more co-operative than others!

BooBearBoo- Epidurals don't MASSIVELY increase the risk of intervention but they do increase the risk of intervention....

We don't want to mis-inform suburbanslob. The best thing to do, is on your next appointment with the Doc/MW ask them about the pros/cons and exact figures/stats regarding Epidural-

Nowadays epidurals are a lot more 'refined' than they use to be, and you CAN have a low dose or ask the anesthetist to reduce the drug as you get towards the pushing stage.

Good-luck with whatever you choose...I'm sure it will be the best dicision for YOU!

Best wishes...

Sorry for butting in, but can anyone tell me what does 'back to back' mean?

It is quite uncommon for an epidural not to work, in fact I think there is only around a 10% chance of this happening...